


Aftermath

by alwaysconfusedcas



Category: Supernatural
Genre: A little bit of angst, Alternate Universe, Divorce, Fluff, Happy Ending, I'm Sorry, M/M, Marriage, Plot, Post-Divorce, Writing Prompt, i don't know how to tag stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2019-08-09
Packaged: 2020-08-13 23:09:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20182258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alwaysconfusedcas/pseuds/alwaysconfusedcas
Summary: Au where Dean and Cas are separated, and their 12 year old, Jack, wants them back together. He comes up with a plan where he asks each to chaperone his dance at school, and doesn't tell the other about it.  Jack keeps bringing them punch, and tries to convince them to dance together. Obviously it works.





	Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> A writing prompt that came from the lovely juzojen on tumblr. It came out way longer than I originally expected. The title came from a song by Lifehouse, that I think suits the story pretty well, if anyone fancy to listen. All in all, I hope you will enjoy.

"Jack!" Dean yelled, standing at the bottom of the stairs, impatiently looking at his watch every couple of minutes. "Have you finished packing your backpack?"

"Yes, dad!" Jack yelled back from the room upstairs.

“Hurry up then, and come down. Your dad will be here soon."

Dean wasn’t hurrying Jack, because he wanted to get rid of him, not at all. He wanted to spend as much time as possible with his son. Sure, he had him over the weekends every two weeks, and sometimes during weekdays, when Castiel was busy with work. But it was never enough. He knew how fast kids were growing up, and how important it was to be in his son’s life like nothing ever changed, even though two years ago everything changed. For so many years Dean and Cas were so happy, and their life together was perfect. They promised each other forever at the altar, they moved in to their new house, they adopted Jack. They became a beautiful family. Unfortunately nothing in Dean’s life was forever. Since he was a little kid, something always had to break at some point. The same thing happened to his marriage with Cas, at some point something just broke, and after that nothing was ever the same. He tried to fix it, they both did, but nothing worked, and it wasn’t good to stay at a place where they both weren’t happy.

"Dad, are you okay?" He heard Jack’s voice coming from the right side of the couch. Dean turned, and saw his son’s concerned expression.

"Yes, I’m okay. Just thinking." Dean smiled, reached with his hands to grab Jack, putting him on his lap. He started to tickle him. Dean always did that, ever since Jack was a little kid.

"Dad, stop it!" Jack was laughing, trying to get out of his father’s grip.

"I’m not dad, I’m the tickling monster." Dean laughed along with Jack. Right here, right now, those were the most precious moments, the moments worth living for.

After a few minutes of their fun they both were sitting, side by side, panting and smiling.

"Dad." Jack started, and turned to look at Dean. "Can I ask you something?"

"Anything, buddy."

"There’s this dance at my school on Friday, and I was just thinking if you could go with me, you know, as a chaperone?" Jack’s voice was full of hope.

"Of course I will go with you." Dean said without a second of hesitation.

"Awesome." His sweet, little face lit up, and he hugged Dean. They stayed like that for a longer moment, until they heard a car honking outside.

"Your dad is here." They got up from the couch, and went to the front door. Jack grabbed his backpack, and turned to Dean again.

"I wish you could go with us." There was a little bit of sadness in the kid’s voice.

Dean knew that Jack understood the situation, because they sat down with him, and explained everything, once they decided to divorce. But he also knew what his son felt. He knew perfectly well how it is to not have the people you love, by your side on a daily basis.

"I wish that too, buddy." He got down to one of his knees, and hugged Jack again. "I love you."

"I love you too, dad."

"See you on Friday?"

"See you on Friday." The kid confirmed, nodding his head.

Jack run over to Castiel’s car, turned over once again, waved at Dean, and got in. Dean smiled, and closed the door. He looked around his house. He was alone again. 

***

"How was your weekend?" Castiel asked Jack, putting a plate with sandwiches, and a glass of orange juice in front of him.

"It was awesome." He said biting into the sandwich. "We put together a model of a plane that dad bought. We will paint it next time I will be there, the glue has to dry first."

"That’s cool." He sat opposite to his son, with a cup of tea in his hand. "And have you finished your homework?"

"Yes I did. I like to do homework with dad, he’s super smart." Jack smiled, and grabbed the orange juice glass.

"That he is." Castiel confirmed, nodding his head slowly. Dean was one of the smartest people Cas ever got to meet. That was one of the things he found extremely attractive about Dean, one of the reasons he fell in love with him.

"Daddy..." Jack started, after he finished his evening meal.

"Yes?" Castiel turned to him after putting their plates into the sink.

"You know about that dance at my school on Friday?"

"I do." He came back to the table. "What about it?"

"Will you be a chaperone at it?"

"Why didn’t you tell me about it earlier?"

"I forgot, I’m sorry daddy." Jack made a sad face.

"Hey, you don’t have to be sorry. I just have a lot of work this week." Castiel took a deep breath. He hated disappointing his son.

"Daddy, please." Jack made his puppy eyes. "I already told ms. Mills that you will come."

"Jack, you know you shouldn’t have said that before talking with me."

"I know, but I really want you to go. You work all the time, and I wanted to spend more time with you." The kid was excellent at manipulation.

"Well." Castiel tilted his head and half-smiled. "If it’s that important to you, then of course that I will be there."

"Thank you, daddy." Jack jumped out of his chair, and run over to Castiel to hug him. "You are the best."

"You are the best too." Cas smiled, and hugged his son back. "Now, off to bed."

"Goodnight, daddy."

"Goodnight, Jack."

***

"Come on dad, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!" Jack was jumping up and down by the door.

"Why are you so impatient?" Castiel asked, putting on his shoes. "We still have plenty of time."

"I know, but I told my friends that I’m going to be there earlier, so can we please go?"

"Fine, fine. We are going." Cas took the keys to his car, and they left the house.

They arrived at Jack’s school almost an hour earlier, but seeing how excited his son was, Castiel only smiled. Jack grabbed Cas' hand, and dragged him inside, like their lives depended on it. They spotted ms. Mills by one of the tables, and walked over to her.

"Hi ms. Mills!" Jack almost screamed, all cheery, with a big grin on his face.

"Hi Jack." She smiled at him, and ruffled his hair. "You came here quite early. But so did a few of your classmates. Claire, Alex, and Kevin are over by the stage." She pointed to her right side.

"Thanks, ms. Mills. Dad can I go?" Jack looked at Cas with his puppy eyes again.

"Of course you can. Have fun." His son sprinted to his friends before he could finish the sentence.

"How are you, Cas." Ms. Mills turned to Castiel, warm smile on her face. "We haven’t seen you here in a long time."

"I’m good, Jody, just busy. You know, life, work, basic stuff."

"Well, I’m glad that you found the time today. It was very important to Jack to be here with the both of you."

"The both of us?" Castiel tilted his head, confusion on his face.

"He didn’t tell you?" Jody seemed to be surprised as well now.

"Didn’t tell me what? What’s going on here?"

"He came to me a week ago, and asked if both, you and Dean, can chaperone the dance." Jody’s face expression was apologetic. "I’m sorry, he told me that he talked to the both of you, and that both of you said yes."

"He sure did talked to the both of us, just separately." Cas shook his head, wondering why Jack would do such a thing.

"You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to, we have more parents than needed." Jody was trying to give him a way out.

Unfortunately, just as she finished the sentence, Dean walked through the big, gym door. There was no way out now.

***

Dean walked through the door, and stopped for a moment, looking around to find Jack, but instead of Jack he found someone who wasn’t supposed to be there. Castiel was standing next to ms. Mills, and he had the same confused expression on his face that Dean had. Did he misunderstood something? He didn’t think so. But maybe? He wasn’t sure anymore, so he stood there, and didn’t know what to do. He hasn’t seen Cas in months. They used to always got out of their cars while picking or dropping Jack, out of politeness, more than out of necessity, but after some time they stopped doing that. It hurt them both, and it was easier not to see each other at all, so now they didn’t even got out of their cars. It was the first time in a long while that they were in the same space together. Dean looked into Castiel’s blue eyes, and he felt all of his insides tying to a knot. This was hard, harder than he expected.

"Hi there, Jody." He smiled at her, and then briefly looked at his ex-husband. "Cas."

"Dean." Cas said, not looking at him either.

"It’s good to see you, Dean." She patted his shoulder. "Now, if you excuse me, I have some things to arrange." And just like that she walked away, leaving the two of them alone. It was awkward for both of them. They didn’t know what to say, or what to do. All those years apart turned them from lovers to strangers again. After several minutes Dean got tired of the silence.

"So..." He started. "How are things with you?"

"Why are you here, Dean?" Cas snapped into a defensive mode in an instant.

"What do you mean why am I here?" Dean turned to face him. "I’m here because my son asked me to be here."

"You shouldn’t have come." Cas was still looking at the floor.

"And why is that? It’s you who’s never at Jack’s school things, because you are always oh so busy." He was getting annoyed.

"Well, I’m sorry for having a job." Cas finally looked at Dean, rage in his eyes.

"Your family should be more important to you than your job, Cas. God, why can’t you understand this?" Dean put a hand over his face.

"I understand it perfectly."

"This is your problem, Cas." Dean moved his shoulders up and down, and let out a nervous laugh. "You always think that you are right, even if you’re not."

"Dad!" Jack was running towards them from the other side of the gym.

"Hiya, buddy." Dead, as always, got down to his knee, and tightly wrapped his arms around his son’s body.

"Jack." Cas started, after Dean got back up. "Why didn’t you tell me that your dad is going to be here?"

"I didn’t?" Jack’s surprised face was something both Cas and Dean could believe in, if they didn’t know him so well. "I was sure I did."

"You didn’t tell me either, buddy."

"I’m sorry." He did his puppy eyes again, because he knew he got caught lying to his parents. "I just really wanted you both to be here today."

"And we understand that." Dean spoke before Cas could say anything, because he saw how angry and irritated he was, and he didn’t wanted for Cas to say the wrong thing here. "But next time you have to talk with us first, okay?"

"Okay." Jack nodded his head.

“Good. Now go back to your friends." Dean gave him a smile, and ruffled his hair.

"Thanks, dad." He run away to the other side of the gym again.

"What are you trying to do here?" Castiel asked immediately.

"I’m trying to give our son what he wants, because damn it, Cas, after all the shit we put him through for the past couple of years, he deserves a night where his family is together, not fighting." Dean tried to hold it together. "So please, can we stop arguing about everything for just one evening?"

"Yeah, okay." Castiel said, letting out a breath he was holding in his lungs for a little bit too long. "And you are right." He added. "Jack deserves more than this."

Dean turned his head, and looked at Cas with his eyes wide open, and his jaw dropped a little.

"What?" Castiel asked.

"Did you just agreed with me, and said that I’m right?" He put his fingers to his chest, and gave Cas a crooked smile.

"Shut up." Cas said after a second, and laughed quietly under his nose.

Dean made Castiel laugh. After all these years he still had that something in him, that made Cas laugh. It felt nice, and so easy to fell back to their old routine. And it felt good, it felt right.

Right after that Jody, and another teacher, Donna, joined them. It was easier for both of them to be around one another when there were more people involved. Eventually more kinds and their parents started to come in. The music started to play, and everyone was having fun. Even Dean and Cas, and lately that was a very uncommon thing. Every once in a while they would accidentally bump each other’s shoulder, because there wasn’t that much space behind the table they were at, and all that caused were shy, and small smiles.

"I brought you some punch." Jack said, when he appeared over at their table, holding out two cups filled with a red drink.

"Thank you." They both said at the same time.

They took the drinks and slowly started to sip them. A minute haven’t passed after they emptied the cups, and there was Claire in front of them with another round of punch.

"For you mr. Winchester, mr. Novak." She handed them the drinks, and run away, giggling.

It happened a few more times. Every time a different kid was bringing them more and more punch. They both stopped drinking it after a third round, and started to put the cups under the table.

"I believe our son wants to make us drunk." Castiel whispered, getting closer to Dean.

"You don’t say." Dean laughed, looking briefly into his ex’s eyes. "I’m glad he doesn’t yet understands the concept of non alcoholic drinks."

"Yes, he’s still innocent like that." Cas put his back against a wall, crossed his arms, and looked over at Jack, surrounded by all of his friends. "We did a good job with him."

"Indeed." Dean stood next to Cas, their shoulders touching again. "You did a great job for the past two years."

"Dean, stop." Castiel closed his eyes, and let out a short breath. "I know that he lives with me, but you probably spend more time with him than I do."

"Hey." Dean pressed himself harder against Cas. "Don’t say that. You are a great father to him."

"Not lately." Cas lowered his head. "I’m constantly working, and I barely have time to do anything with him. And every time he comes back from a weekend with you, he goes on and on about all the cool stuff you two are doing together. And it makes me angry, Dean." Castiel confessed. "Not at you, but at myself. And I’m jealous about the great connection you two have. I’m jealous because he’s treating you as a friend, and me as a parent."

"That’s not true, Cas."

"Yes, it is."

"No, it’s not." Dean argued. "You clearly have no idea just how much this kid loves you." He looked at Castiel, who typically tilted his head when he was confused. "All Jack talks about is how much he admires you. He can go all hours about all the cool things you do at your job, and how much he loves when every once in a while you take him with you. Or how much he enjoys just sitting, and watching movies with you when you get back from work, even if it’s late. How much fun you two have cooking dinners, or baking together." Dean turned, and put his hand on Cas' shoulder, gently squeezing it. "This kid adores you."

"Dad?" They heard Jack’s voice behind their backs, and Dean instinctively knew that Jack was addressing Cas.

"Everything okay?" Castiel stepped away from the wall, towards his son.

"Yes, everything good. I was just wondering..." He paused for a moment. "Can you and dad come, and dance, like you used to? I promised Claire I will show her how you two dance so we can dance like that too."

"I don’t know if it’s a good idea, Jack." Cas' whole body got tense.

"Daddy, please?" Jack’s never ending puppy eyes continued.

"What do you say?" Dean spoke, and offered his hand to Castiel. "Should we show the kids how it’s done?"

Castiel was looking deep into those grass-green eyes of his ex-husband, and he was afraid. Today’s afternoon, and evening, were going so great, like nothing bad ever happened. Except it wasn’t the truth. All the memories of the part of their past where they were constantly fighting were still burning somewhere inside Castiel’s heart. It was hard for him, but right now the only important thing was his son’s happiness.

He was hesitating, but the second Dean smiled at him, showing a row of perfect, white teeth, everything bad went away, and Cas was drawn towards Dean like all those years ago. He shyly smiled back, and put his hand into Dean’s.  
They went to the dance floor, holding hands, and glancing at each other. Right when they got to where Claire was standing, a slow song came out of the speakers. Dean put one of his hands on Cas' back, pushing them closer together. Cas' hand landed on Dean’s shoulder. They started to rock slowly to the sides, and for a longer moment they looked deeply into each other’s eyes, like nothing else around them existed. At some point Castiel closed his eyes, and put his cheek against Dean’s. The other man smiled widely, and held Cas even closer to himself.

"Look at them." Dean said to Castiel, and he turned his head to the side. "They look cute together."

"Yes, they do." Cas was nodding his head, watching how Jack tried to imitate them.

"You look cute too." Dean knew perfectly well what he was risking here, but still, he was willing to try.

"Dean, come on, stop it." Cas said, shifting his eyes to Dean for a second, and then back to Jack.

"What? It’s the truth."

"No, it’s not."

"Why do you always have to argue with me?" Dean didn’t wanted to let this go.

"I’m not arguing with you." He sighed. "But what we are doing here, this is not for us, it’s for Jack."

"And you never thought that what Jack did today was for you and me, and not for him? The kid is clever, Cas."

"I know that, and I know what he did. But it can’t happen, Dean."

"Why not?" Dean shifted himself a little to the back, just to look at Castiel’s face.

"We can’t put Jack through that hell again, I can’t let that happen."

"It doesn’t have to be like that this time."

"Dean, this is not the place to talk about things like that."

Dean moved closer to Castiel again.

"Don’t give up on us." He whispered against his ear.

"There’s nothing to give up on here." Cas dropped his hands, and took a step back.

"Cas..." Dean said, reaching for his hand again.

"Dean, no." Castiel said firmly, and walked away, disappearing behind the door leading to the school’s hallway.

"Dad?" There was a hand pulling by the sleeve of Dean’s jacket. "What happened?"

"Your dad just got upset, and he needs a minute to himself." Dean was trying to stay calm, and reasonable. This is exactly what they both wanted to avoid, for Jack to see them fight again.

"This is my fault, isn’t it?" Jack put his head down.

"Jack, look at me." Dean said, and so his son did. "None of this is your fault, do you hear me?" He crunched to be at the same level as Jack.

"But..."

"There is no but, buddy. Your dad and me, we haven’t spoken to each other for a very long time. There’s a lot we would like to talk about, and it can be a little bit overwhelming."

"I thought that I will help if I get the two of you to talk again. I’m sorry." His voice had a really sad tone.

"Hey, hey." Dean put his hands on Jack’s shoulders. "You have nothing to be sorry about, okay?"

"Okay." Jack nodded his head.

"I’m glad that you did what you did today."

"You are?" The kid’s face lit up.

"Of course I am. It gave me a chance to talk with your dad, and to spend more time with you. How could I not be happy about that?" He gave his son a warm, and reassuring smile. "In fact, will you promise me that you will stay here, while I go, and talk with your dad again?"

"I promise." Jack said, and hugged Dean.

"Awesome." Dean got up to his feet. "We will be back soon." He said, and walked towards the door Castiel disappeared behind a few minutes earlier.

***

Dean found Castiel around the corner, in the hallway, his forehead pressed to the cold surface of the school lockers. His eyes were closed, and he was rhythmically hitting the locker with his closed fist.

"Cas, please." Dean said, putting his hand over Castiel’s, and lowering it down to make him stop.

"Why are you still here?" He stayed in the same position.

"Because I want to be."

"You should just go." Castiel’s voice was breaking.

"I can’t." Dean whispered.

"And why is that?"

"Because I’m tired of being alone." His voice got softer, and even quieter.

"That’s not good enough of a reason."

"Cas, look at me." Dean said, and was patiently waiting until Castiel did. His blue eyes were full of tears. "This is only one of many reasons." He started. "I miss you, Castiel. I miss you, and I miss Jack. All those years ago I thought that us fighting was the worst thing in the world, but it wasn’t. The worst thing is being away from you. Our divorce didn’t make me feel better, it made me miserable. I can’t even think about any kind of another relationship, because all I can think about is you, and Jack, and how much I want to go back to what we had. I have learned my lesson, I know how stupid I was... how stupid we both were. This is not the life I want, I don’t want to come back to an empty house again. I want to come back to you, Cas."

Dean watched Cas' tears roll down his cheeks, and all he wanted to do, was to kiss them away, but he needed to give Cas his space, so he was patiently waiting. And then suddenly Castiel's arms wrapped around Dean’s neck, and they crushed their chests together.

"I’m scared, Dean." Cas whispered against Dean’s neck.

"I am scared too, but for the past year and a half I wanted nothing more than to come back to you, to our family."

"That long?" Cas' voice was genuinely surprised. 

"Yeah, Cas, that long."

"Why didn’t you say anything?"

"I wanted to give you the space you needed, so I was waiting, wishing that maybe you will come around, and make the first step. But you never did, and I think I lost hope for a while." Dean’s hand was slowly going up and down Castiel’s back. "So many times I wanted to get out of that damn car, and say something, but I was terrified of your reaction. I didn’t wanted to make it worse than it already was. And then I saw you today, and I knew I had to make things right between us."

"I’m afraid that we will go back to fighting, and I don’t know if I can handle it again." Cas clenched to Dean even tighter.

"We have lost so much time already, and I realised that losing you was the biggest mistake of my life." Dean gently kissed Castiel’s shoulder. "There’s no room for fighting. Not anymore."

"I want to believe you." Cas was hesitant, and pulled away from Dean to look at his face.

"You can believe me. We won’t know what might happen until we try, but trust me, I have changed. I think we both did."

"I can see that you did." Castiel stepped closer again, and put his hand on Dean’s cheek. Dean eased into the touch. "I don’t remember when was the last time we had a conversation this honest, with you not turning away, and slamming the door."

"It feels good, doesn’t it?" He smiled gently.

"It does. Dean..." Castiel added after a moment, taking his hand away from Dean, and putting it to his forehead. "I need some kind of certainty. I need to be sure that you are serious about this, about us."

"Marry me." Dean said instantly, no hesitation in his voice.

"What?" The question left Cas with his eyes and mouth wide open.

"Marry me." He repeated, and took his walled out of his jacket’s inside pocket. He then opened it, and pulled a silver ring from inside of it. "I never wanted anyone else in my life, but you. You are my other half, my better half."

"Dean..." Cas whispered, looking back and forth from the ring to Dean’s face. "You kept it."

"Of course that I kept it, Cas. You have always been the love of my life, the most important person for me, and even though we fell apart for a while, I never stopped loving you. In the back of my head I always believed that we will find our way back to each other. So..." Dean grabbed Cas' hand, got down on one knee, and held the ring up. "Castiel, will you marry me... again?"

"Yes, Dean." Cas choked on his own tears. "I will marry you, again."

Dean put the ring back onto Cas' finger, where it always belonged, got up, put his hands on Cas' waist, and pulled him closer. Cas cupped Dean’s face, and smiled, like he didn’t smile in years.

"I love you." He said resting his forehead against Dean’s.

"I love you too." Dean’s hand wandered onto Castiel’s neck, and then he crashed their lips together. In that moment everything fell back into the right place. The kiss they shared was full of passion, and longing.

"We should go back.' Cas said, a little out of breath.

"Yeah, we should." Dean replied, still keeping Cas as close as possible.

"I think Jack will be happy." Castiel let out a laugh.

"He’s not the only one who’s happy." Dean laid another, soft kiss on his lips.

"No, he’s not the only one."

They went back to the gym. Jack was still dancing next to Claire, Kevin, and Alex, who must have joined them when Cas and Dean were away. Jack smiled at his fathers, and they smiled back at him.

"He is a one sneaky, little kid." Castiel said, shaking his head.

"That he is." Dean agreed. "And I believe he might be the smartest one out of the three of us."

"Quite possible."

They danced together again, this time holding each other much closer, whispering sweet words, and kissing each other’s necks every once in a while. It was the perfect evening, and they had to thank Jack for it. Their son brought them back together.  
After the dance finished, the three of them walked over to Dean’s car.

"I’m going to miss you, dad." Jack said, looking up at Dean.

"Will you?" Dean asked, and picked Jack up.

"I will, I always miss you."

"Jack." Cas started, as he walked over, putting one hand over Dean’s back, and the other over his son’s. "Would you like it if we came back home together?"

"All three of us?" Jack almost screamed, eyes wide opened.

"All three of us." Dean confirmed.

Jack put his hands around both, Dean and Cas' necks, and pulled them closer together into a hug.

"I love you." His voice was all happy, and full of triumph.

"We love you too, Jack." They both said, smiling at each other.

The three of them stayed like that for a while, pulled into a tight hug, full of warmth, love, hope, and excitement for what was to come. This was their new beginning, and this time it was forever.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope y'all liked it. Also, I was too tired to proof read it, so please, if you see any mistakes, let me know.


End file.
